Students are a milestone of nation development to be able to compete with other nations. “Indonesia is in the 86th position of 126 countries for life index; moreover, in ASEAN, Indonesia is under the Philippines and Vietnam. Thus, we need bases to bring it into reality, namely knowledge, affective, and psychometric aspects. Those three aspects ought to be enhances in student environment,” uttered Hamdan Zoela, S.H., M.H., a former chief justice of Constitutional Court (MK) as a speaker of MATAF FISIPOL UMY 2015 on Tuesday (1/9) at Mosque Hall of K.H. Ahmad Dahlan of UMY. The MATAF raised a theme of ‘Reconstructing Scientific Culture as a Milestone of Nation Development’.

Hamdan inserted that pupil and student environment is distinctive that pupils receive anything while students foster what they gain. In knowledge aspect, we can access any knowledge without listening to lecturers. “Due to technology development, we can learn from internet. Student can learn autonomously by accessing, for instance, online library and other online resources. Obtaining knowledge is similar to looking for the truth so that who are diligent may reveal the certainty. Two main aspects of knowledge are ‘transfer of knowledge’ and ‘innovation of knowledge’. Therefore, Indonesia will be able to not only compete but also be appreciated by other nations,” he added.

Furthermore, affective aspect encompasses morals and characters. “As students of FISIPOL UMY, you ought to elevate Islamic characteristics of UMY. Intelligent people without having good morals are lame because they do not possess moral value to hold. In political field, you will be smart but fraudulent people. Each country has its own characteristics and values. Hence, Indonesia also holds the principle to be developed and huge country,” he contended.

Moreover, psychometric aspects are vital for students, particularly freshmen of UMY. When having incredible knowledge, it will be too bad if we cannot implement it well as mentioned in a hadith that unimplemented knowledge is the same as a fruitless tree. Students have to make plans what to do. One of them is by joining student organizations because it will train our leadership and time management. Thus, students can engage in process of developing Indonesia.

Students have taken roles not only recently but also since liberating Indonesia. “If we notice colonial era, students coined concepts to move the nation forward. I recommend that those three aspects ought to be instilled in students of UMY so that they can take roles for the development of Indonesia,” he advised.